Effect of Applied Voltage on Surface and Volume Charge Density of the Jet in Electrospinning of Polyacrylonitrile Solutions

To investigate the effect of applied voltage on jet charge density, one must investigate its effect on the jet electric current and flow rate. However, there are some difficulties in measuring the jet flow rate. Here, the electrospinning jet flow rate is calculated by applying a new method and the effects of applied voltage and feed rate on jet charge density are investigated. The jet flow rate was independent of the feed rate and increased on increasing the applied voltage. By defining an experimental equation for dependence of jet flow rate on jet current, a relation between jet volume charge density and jet current could be defined. By measuring the electrospun fiber diameter, surface charge density of the jet could be estimated. On increasing the voltage, the jet volume charge density decreased whereas the jet surface charge density remained unchanged. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:1372-1376, 2010. (C) 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers